Defiant Obama Set on Closing Guantanamo

Defiant Obama Set on Closing Guantanamo

Article excerpt

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has vowed no retreat on closing Guantanamo Bay "terrorist" prison.

Mr Obama branded the prison a "mess", charging that Bush-era anti-terror tactics were rooted in fear and ideology.

He also raised the prospect of holding the most dangerous al-Qaeda detainees indefinitely in US "super-max" jails, in a major speech designed to recapture the initiative in a row over his national security policies.

Obama took on critics on the right who believe "anything goes" in the fight against terrorism, and rebuked allies on the left who he said believed that in all cases transparency should triumph over national security.

Minutes later, former vice president Dick Cheney stepped up, forcibly defending former president George W Bush policies in his own nationally-televised speech.

Obama insisted he had been right to order the closure of the "war on terror" prison in Cuba within one year, saying it had stained the US image abroad. …